You'll know all about too many foreign coaches, Greg. You hired one from Germany

Too many foreign coaches, too many foreign players, too many foreign owners. The former non-executive chairman of Brentford reeled off the ills of English football, one by one.

Greg Dyke had to relinquish his position at Griffin Park when he became chairman of the FA this summer. So, who did he leave in charge? Uwe Rosler, a German.

And was Rosler the only manager of Dyke’s tenure? No, he was the eighth in just over seven years, which might explain why modern coaches get a little antsy and look for a short-cut to success that does not involve the arduous process of youth development.

In the circumstances, it would take a heart of stone not to laugh; or cry.

Steep target: FA Chairman Greg Dyke has said he wants England to win the 2022 World Cup

Handed the reins: Dyke appointed German boss Uwe Rosler to the Brentford post

Now Dyke is responsible for the England team, he is very much the patriot. When he was running Brentford, he was very keen on what was best for Brentford, and if that was a German coach, then English be damned.

Does he seriously believe one set of rules works for all?

Dyke was also a director of Manchester United from 1997 to 1999. In those three years, Sir Alex Ferguson signed 12 players: two Norwegians, two Swedes, a Dutchman, Australian, South African, Italian, Frenchman, Trinidadian, and two Englishmen.

The English players, Teddy Sheringham and Jonathan Greening, had a combined value of £4m; the foreigners totalled £43m.

Again, there is no record of Dyke being greatly offended by this invasion, with the resultant stifling of opportunity. It wasn’t in his interest to oppose, back then. So let’s just agree that people do what they feel is necessary and right at the time. It was right for Brentford to appoint Rosler, an impressive coach who narrowly missed out on promotion to the Championship last season and few at Old Trafford will regret the signings of players such as Jaap Stam, Dwight Yorke and Mikael Silvestre.

Treble yell: Manchester United won it all in Dyke's last year at Old Trafford, but only two Englishmen were transferred to the club

Homegrown talent: Teddy Sheringham (left) and Jonathan Greening

Now those who do not have football clubs to run and would like to see England play at a tournament without a feeling of dread will rally to Dyke’s call.

What he said in his state of the nation address will strike a great many chords. Would we like to see more English coaches in top jobs? Tick. Would we like to see more English players in every Premier League team? Tick. Do we fear for the future of the national team? Tick. Now, what can be done? Twirl pen. Drum fingers Tumbleweed.

For as Dyke’s progress through football confirms, what the FA chairman is up against is expedience — directors, owners, chairmen who only want the best managers, or the best players, and who would love it if this coincided with the needs of the England team, but if it doesn’t?

Well, Brentford come first; or Manchester United. Whatever works. Short of introducing quotas — which will never happen under European Union employment law, so don’t even go there — there is really little that can be done that isn’t theory.

A lot of people have ideas about how to create and improve young talent in the English game, but that is all they have. Ideas.

And what is considered a game-changing concept at Arsenal may be rejected entirely at Chelsea. If Dyke is not careful, his commission into the future of the English game will merely be swamped with individual plans and theories.

Sir Trevor Brooking, head of development at the FA, is obsessed with the age group five to 11, yet some of the country’s leading academy coaches insist at that age English football has no problem at all, and it is from 12 to 16 that young talent withers on the vine.

Too few hours working with top coaches, unwieldy squads that leave little opportunity to work with the elite; and then there are the unhelpful English school hours.

How far do you want to go with this, chairman? You may need to get Michael Gove involved.

Everyone thinks they have the prettiest wife at home, said Arsene Wenger. And that goes double for the kids. So Manchester City, winners of the Under 13 and Under 14 Premier Leagues, think it is wonderful that their new coach Manuel Pellegrini is at every youth team match, taking an interest in the team of the future, which was certainly Sir Alex Ferguson’s way.

One eye on the future: Manuel Pellegrini (back row, centre) watches City's Under 21s against their Everton counterparts

Wenger, meanwhile, has produced and nurtured some of the finest English players of the last decade, including Ashley Cole, Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott, after his transfer from Southampton, and few can recall ever seeing him at a youth event.

Does Dyke seriously believe there is one formula, one set of rules to follow, and this can be alighted on by committee? He reads out statistics and the room tut-tuts, but finite answers are more elusive than easy rhetoric. What Dyke said was that something should be done. That is very different to doing something.

The law of unintended consequences, he called it.

Answers are more elusive than rhetoric

He said the phenomenal success of the Premier League, with its financial gains, had the opposite effect of what was intended.

English players had not learnt from their foreign team-mates, but been overwhelmed by them. That is not strictly true if considering the influence of Eric Cantona, Gianfranco Zola or Dennis Bergkamp — but the fact is unintended consequences, harmful to the development of young English players, continue to occur.

For instance, when negotiations for the last television deal arose, Sky suddenly found they had an aggressive competitor in BT, forcing the price up.

Sky wanted to keep its share of the market, BT wanted to invade that territory. The result was a television contract beyond football’s wildest fantasies.

Sky were not entirely aggravated by this. An additional, say, £10m per club, might not make a huge difference at Manchester United, they reasoned, but it will mean the world to Crystal Palace.

And if that enables the smallest clubs to strengthen and give the elite more of a game, that is better for our product and our figures.

On the second Sunday of the season, Cardiff City defeated Manchester City, proving the point. It was a great game and everybody loved it. Cardiff had been one of the biggest spenders in the transfer window.

Unforgettable: Cardiff beat Premier League title contenders Manchester City in their first home game of the season

Yet the unintended consequence is that the more money that floods into football, the more the clubs can short-circuit the system by buying ready-made talent, capable of walking straight into the first team.

Hull City may now be able to give Arsenal more of a game, but at what cost to the kid in the reserves who thought this might be his season?

And if Manchester United and even Brentford are free to pursue their ambitions without regard to nationality, why do the likes of Wigan Athletic, Newcastle United and Sunderland — singled out specifically by Dyke in his speech — have to operate with one eye on the needs of the national team?

Of course England matters, of course there are concerns, but it was impossible not to notice, as Dyke spoke, the giant Vauxhall logos lurking behind him.

The FA has a commercial arm as developed as any Premier League football club, and was no doubt seeking to advance the strength of its brand when it appointed two foreign coaches of England in its last four — a greater percentage than any Premier League club bar Chelsea, Manchester City, Swansea City and Tottenham and equal to one, West Ham United.

It is at times like this when the FA’s desire to reform the game or hawk it to the highest bidder becomes blurred.

This is an organisation that want clubs
to pick English players, but then bleats when they play — the resistance
to the timing of the matches between Liverpool and Manchester United
and Arsenal and Tottenham was laughable — that wants English coaches but
goes foreign when it suits, and that has had the same director of development for 10 years.

Meet the new boss: Gareth Southgate (centre) has been charged with rejuvenating the fortunes of England Under 21s

Shown up: Connor Wickham looks exasperated as England U21s fall to a 1-0 defeat to Israel - their third loss in this summer's UEFA European Championships

The FA admit development is in retreat, yet never considers a more radical presence.

In need of a coach to steer the future generations it came up with Gareth Southgate, a decent man but with a chequered record as a coach, and the image of the archetypal company man.

Dyke spoke as if wishing to embrace radicalism, but is the saviour of the national team just another coat that fits at the time?

Bottom line, if England has 203 Pro Licence coaches and Spain has 2,140, and every English coach has to go through the FA’s system, whose fault is that, and where should the change in priorities start?

Put it another way. A friend recently took his Grade 1 FA coaching badge and showed me some of the paperwork.

It is fair to say he is now fully prepared for any transsexual eventuality the modern world of English football management may throw at him. Unless a group of them come up and want to know how to play like Spain.